An enterprise might store and access business information in a number of different ways. For example, an enterprise might store a substantial amount of information about production, sales, human resources, etc. in one or more database structures created by a business service provider (e.g., SAP AG®). In some cases, a business service provider hosts and provides business services for a client. For example, the business service provider might receive requests from the client and provide responses to the client via a service-oriented architecture such as those provided by SAP Business ByDesign®. In this way, the client may access information via one or more business user interface displays. The use of the remotely hosted business process platform may help the client avoid the costs and problems associated with maintaining a local, “in house” system or systems.
In some instances, an enterprise might want to let users access information via a web display that includes a large number of related data items. User displays have previously used horizontal and/or vertical navigation scroll bars and/or page-wise scrolls to navigate through large listings of related data items. However, using such navigation mechanisms are less than ideal, and may in fact be impractical, when the list of related data items to be displayed and analyzed via the user interface stretches beyond that which can be displayed at once in a display pane. Also, the navigation through a listing of related data items configured in a “tree” structure in a user interface may also be unwieldy and cumbersome, especially with a large number of related data items.
Accordingly, a method and mechanism for efficiently displaying and navigating related data items in a user interface may be provided by some embodiments herein.